State Parks opens Big Basin rebuild plan to public in webinar

Five years on from the CZU fire gutting Big Basin, the picture of it’s recovery is starting to come into view.

Practically the entire infrastructure was destroyed in 2020. They were able to reopen to the public in 2022, and now their looking at how to build hundreds of structures, utilities, and more.

"The entire park area burned essentially in a 24 hour period, and all the buildings, including the historic core in the park, were lost in that fire. Essentially, every piece of park infrastructure was lost,” said Will Fourt of California State Parks.

Big Basin is California’s oldest state park. From the moment it was lost, there was strong desire to bring back it’s glory.

“It's been well-loved by many visitors over many periods of California history since it was first established in 1902,” said Fourt.

State Parks says the project really focuses on efficient and high functioning buildings with fire resiliency.

And even before buildings go up, their working on defensive forestry techniques.

“We're engaged with our volunteers who are who are making visible piles within the old growth loop at the base. And these are piles that will be burned in the winter. It's a really tangible aspect of, fire ecology and how the public can see how fuels build up, how we can treat them, how we can keep low intensity fire within the old growth," said Santa Cruz District Superintendent Chris Spohrer.

They’re also planning to partner with tribal communities for both cultural use and stewardship of the land.

Many at Thursday’s public webinar were worried about recreating the same camping experiences from before.

"The main focus of our, our our push here with the redesign was to accommodate at least as much overnight capacity as we lost," said Spohrer.

Others were concerned about protecting local species.
The CZU Fire devastated habitats, and multiple people at Thursday’s meeting wanted assurance that new developments would fragment whats left of things like bird nesting areas.

That’s a consideration that could be a part of the environmental impact report that the state has to approve.

20-27 is the hundred-25th anniversary of big basin… but it might be a bit ambitious to have things up and running for that milestone.

"We all would wish that this whole process go more quickly if they extremely complex process. Rebuilding, a park like this is similar to the planning and rebuilding of a small municipality," said Spohrer.

State parks hopes to have a good chunk of road removal and trail recovery done by january.

By March, PG&E expects to be done undergrounding all the electrical utilities back into the park.

And before they break ground on substantial infrastructure, they need to have plans approved by state commissions, which should happen some time next year.